Women win second invite of fall season

The Penn State Behrend women’s cross country team is ranked 10th in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. The team took first out of 16 in the Behrend Invitational on Sept. 15.The top runner for Behrend was Catie Bertges, who took third place with a time of 19:43.7. When asked about her team’s performance, she said, “We were all very happy to win, especially against Gannon, who had beat us a few weeks before. We’re really excited to have such a close pack this year and really impressive freshmen.”

In the Dickinson Long and Short Invitational in Carlisle, Pa., the women’s team took third place out of 14 when the scores of the long and short races are combined. In the long race, Berges took 23rd place and set the pace for the rest of her teammates. The PSB Lions dominated in the short race, with four teammates finishing in the top 30 (Haley Hughes, Victoria Hardwood, Katie Spade and Jamie Szramowski).

On Sunday, the women’s team participated in the Mount Aloysius Invitational and took an impressive first place, winning their second meet of the season. Catie Berges, Haley Hughes, Katie Spade, and Katie Patterson placed in the top four respectively. The next event is the Inter-Regional Rumble on October 13 in Oberlin, Ohio.

On Monday, Haley Hughes was named the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) Women’s Cross Country Runner of the Week. She set a school record and came in 9th place in the short race at the Dickinson Invitational, and came in second place at the Mount Aloysius Invitational.

The men’s cross-country team is also looking good this year. They took 4th out of 17 at the Behrend Invitational, with five runners placing in the top 25. Denis Lydon led the team and took 7th place. At the Dickinson Invitational, the men took fifth place out of 14 when the short and long races are combined. In the long 8k race, Denis Lydon once again led the team, coming in 23rd place. The long race had 233 runners, and the Lions took 17th place. In the short 4k race, the Lions had four runners in the top-25. Michael Smolinski set the pace for the Lions, coming in 15th place. Matt McWilliams, Tyler Yost, Josh Natalie, and Devin Beggs also placed in the top-25.

At the Mount Aloysius Invitational, the men took first out of seven; five Lions took the top five spots. Denis Lydon once again came in first, Josh Natalie came in second, Michael Smolinski came in third, Matt McWilliams came in fourth, and Tyler Yost came in fifth.

When asked about the men’s performance this past weekend, Alex Myers said, “The weekend was a preview weekend for us. The first race was an excellent preview of our regional course and some of the teams that are going to be there. We had excellent performances all across the board.

“The second meet at Mount Aloysius was a preview of our conference meet and while our main competitor in the conference was not there and we ran it as a workout not a race, it was still a good win with a perfect score of 15.”